The Company
The Block Island Power Company, originally named the Island Light and Power Company, has powered Block Island since 1925. The company was incorporated by a special act of the Rhode Island General Assembly. Today our mission is to serve our customers with safe, reliable and affordable energy.
The Island’s electric grid was run on a fleet of diesel generators up until May, 2017 when the company connected to the mainland power grid through National Grid’s Sea2Shore submarine cable.
Block Island is the home to the Block Island Wind Farm, which is owned and operated by Deep Water Wind.
The Block Island Power Company currently serves roughly 1925 electric accounts, operates and maintains 47 miles of distribution lines and a back-up generation plant capable of powering the Island during cable or mainland outages.
Block Island Power Company is governed by a Board of Directors
The cost benefits from the switch affects every family and business on the Island. At times when fuel prices were high the cost per kilo-watt was nearly 70 cents/kilo-watt hour making the BIPCO rates some of the highest in the country. BIPCO’s Standard Offer and Transmission Rates totaling 12.44 cents/kilo-watt hour replaced the highly variable Fuel Adjustment Charge which hit a historic high of more than 36 cents/kilo-watt hour in 2012. Although today’s Standard Offer and Transmission vary occasionally due to external cost pressures, the cable has brought price stability to BIPCO’s rates for the first time in the Island’s history.
The submarine cable between Block Island and Wakefield, which is owned and operated by National Grid, is approximately 23 miles long.
The Staff
Our company consists of 7 staff members, our President Jeffery Wright, Office Manager, Tracy Fredericks, Linemen, Tom Durden, James Stockman, Evan Carey and plant managers David Milner and Richard Martin. Picture to come!
